An Introduction to the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Martin R. Kalfatovic. BHL Australian Node Meeting: National Library of Australia. 4 June 2010. Canberra, Australia.

1. An Introduction to
the Biodiversity
Heritage Library
Martin R. Kalfatovic
Smithsonian Institution Libraries &
Biodiversity Heritage Library
BHL Australian Node Meetings
National Library of Australia
4 June 2010

3. Topics Covered
• Background on BHL
• Scope of the BHL
• Content for BHL
• Internal BHL
communications, structure,
working organization
• Communication
• Use & Users
• Going Global

4. How Did We Get
Here?

5. The Taxonomic Impediment
Yet another physical difficulty is the
task of assembling the library and
indexes which will enable the
student to work under proper
conditions…. the beginner must
now be prepared to spend liberally,
or else must establish himself in an
institution where a large library
exists; if he work by himself with
only a few books, he will have to
confine himself to a very narrow
specialty indeed.
'The Limitations of Taxonomy' by J.M. Aldrich, Science, April 22, 1927,
vol. LXV, no. 1686, p.381

6. BHL Timeline
2003. Telluride. Encyclopedia of Life meeting
February 2005. London. Library and Laboratory:
the Marriage of Research, Data and Taxonomic
Literature
May 2005. Washington. Ground work for the
Biodiversity Heritage Library
June 2006. Washington. Organizational and
Technical meeting
August 2006. New York Botanical Garden. BHL
Director’s Meeting.
October 2006. St. Louis/San Francisco. Technical
meetings
February 2007. Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Organizational meeting
May 2007. Encyclopedia of Life and BHL Portal
Launch. Washington DC.

7. American Museum of Natural History (New
York)
Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia
California Academy of Sciences (San
Francisco)
Field Museum (Chicago)
Natural History Museum (London)
Smithsonian Institution Libraries (Washington)
Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis)
New York Botanical Garden (New York)
Royal Botanic Garden, Kew
Botany Libraries, Harvard University
Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of
Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
Marine Biological Laboratory / Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution

8. Encyclopedia of Life
…imagine for a moment that all the
diversity of the world were finally
revealed and then described, say
one page to a species. The
description would contain the
scientific name, a photograph or
drawing, a brief diagnosis, and
information of where the species if
found. If published in conventional
book form … this Great
Encyclopedia of Life would occupy
60 meters of library shelf per
million species … 100 million
species of organisms … would
extend through 6 kilometers of
shelving …
E.O. Wilson (1992)

10. Education + Learning
Smithsonian & Harvard
OH
H
Synthesis Center
O
Field Museum
HN
Species Pages & Secretariat
2 Smithsonian
Informatics
Marine Biological Laboratory OH
Missouri Botanical Garden

11. Funding

Initial grant from the
MacArthur and Sloan
Foundations (as part of the
Encyclopedia of Life grant)

Additional support from
parent institutions

Additional grants from the
Moore Foundation, Institute
of Museum and Library
Services

12. Scope of BHL

17. How Much Is There?
Define Core literature using major
indicies, viz. TL-2, ZooRecord, Index
Animalium, BPH, etc.
Estimate number of pages for serials
and monographs based on BHL
statistics.
Estimate ratio of pre-1923 literature to
post-1923 literature from Zoo Record
Estimated 495,000,000 pages of core
biodiversity literature.
100,000,000 of the core biodiversity
literature is pre-1923 and likely,
though not certainly, in the public
domain.

18. Content for BHL

19. The Internet Archive
• 501(c)(3) organization
• Dedicated to “Universal Access to
Human Knowledge”
• Founder of the Open Content Alliance
• Provides:
– Mass scanning
– Archival storage of files
– Image processing
– Technology development

20. Scanning Facilities
• Northeast Regional
Scanning Facility
(Boston)
• Jersey City Facility
• Natural History
Museum, London
• Fedscan (Library of
Congress)
• Smithsonian Libraries
• Missouri Botanical
Garden (Non-Scribe
operation)
• Local library solutions

21. Permissions
• Seek permissions from copyright
holders
• Opt in Copyright Model: The BHL
will actively work with professional
societies and associations to
integrate their publications into the
BHL in a way that serves the
societies’ missions and goals
• BHL will digitize learned society
backfiles and mount them through
the BHL Portal at no cost.
• Will provide a set of files to the
publishers for reuse as they see fit

22. Successes
• Entomological News
• Journal of Hymenoptera
Research
• Herpetological Review
• Publications of the San Diego
Natural History Museum
• California Academy of
Sciences publications
• And more ...

23. Now Online
More than:
79,707 volumes
29.9 million pages
Avg. monthly growth rate
1,500 volumes
600,000 pages

24. Now Online
More than:
79,707 volumes
29.9 million pages
Only 465 million to go!
Avg. monthly growth rate
1,500 volumes
600,000 pages
See you in 2088!

25. Use & Users

26. BHL is all about
OPEN & SHARING
• Librarians & libraries
• Taxonomic community
• Educators
• Students
• Policy makers
• Unknown new users

27. An inordinate
fondness for data
Access
Putting biodiversity
literature in the hands of
researchers
Set the data free
Suck it; mash it; broadcast
it
Increase
Reuse, recyle, expand

31. Organization &
Communication

32. BHL Organization
• Executive Council
• Institutional Council
• Staff Group
• Technical Group
• Collections Group
• Field Notebooks
• Ad hoc groups

33. Communication

34. Management by
Flying Around
Chris & Martin's
2009 Roadshow

35. New Tools & Tech

36. New Tools & Tech

37. Metadata: Feedback
Assigned to library staff
for review & resolution

39. Going Global

43. And so...

44. The cultivation of
natural science cannot
be efficiently carried
on without reference
to an extensive library
Charles Darwin, et al.
(1847)
Darwin, C. R. et al. 1847. Copy of
Memorial to the First Lord of the Treasury
[Lord John Russell], respecting the
Management of the British Museum.
Parliamentary Papers, Accounts and
Papers 1847, paper number (268), volume
XXXIV.253 (13 April): 1-3. [Complete
Works of Charles Darwin Online]

45. Extensive.

46. Extensive.
Open.

47. Extensive.
Open.
Global.

49. 1.9 million known
species … most
described once
in a hard to find
article …
Wouldn't it be
nice to know
more about your
neighbors ...

53. And now, stick around!

54. Picture Credits
Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber Richard Lydekker
Die Saugthiere in Abbildungen A hand-book to the marsupialia
nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen and monotremata (1896)
(1826-) Jacob Christian Schäffer
Frederick McCoy Elementa entomologica (1766)
Prodromus of the Zoology of Charles Wilkes
Victoria set out to describe the Narrative of the United States
Colony's fauna (1885-90) Exploring Expedition during the
years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841,
1842. Volume 3 (1845)